What were the key features of ancient Indian economy

1. Glimpses of ancient Indian
economy
Prof Venkatesh Ganapathy
Associate Professor

2. Ancient India economy
• Indus valley civilization
• Gangetic civilization

3. Two types of civilization
• Indus valley civilization - Bronze Age, urban
economy
•
• Vedic civilization – Iron Age, economy
[agricultural mode of production]

4. Indus valley civilization
• canal and docking facility at the coastal city of
Lothal, signifying the importance of overseas
trade.
• The Indus civilization's economy appears to
have depended significantly on trade, which
was facilitated by major advances in transport
technology.

5. Indus valley economy
boats and bullock driven carts
Many of the figurines of the boats are small,
flat-bottomed craft, perhaps driven by sail.
There is also some evidence of large sea-going
craft.
The figure of bullock-driven cart points to its
use in the inland trade as a mode of
transportation.

6. Trade networks
• Afghanistan, the coastal regions of Persia,
northern and central India, Egypt and
Mesopotamia.
The people of Indus valley civilization traded
with Sumer and Sumerian merchants referred
them as Meluhha.

7. Export items
• surplus grain, pottery vases, inlays, ivory
combs, pearls, precious woods, and semi-precious
stones.
• Indus Valley farmers grew wheat, barley, field-peas,
melons, sesame, and dates.

8. Cotton
• Cotton was first developed around 2000 B.C.
and Indus valley people were the first to turn
cotton into yarn and weaving the yarn into
cloth.

9. Ancient India Economy in Vedic Age
•
The Aryans entered the northern part of India from Central Asia by
1500 BC.
• The Aryans re kindled the light of a new economy on the banks of
the river Ganges.
• The Aryan society - nomadic lifestyle
• cattle rearing - the chief occupation.
• Cattle and cows were held in high esteem and frequently appear in
Rigvedic hymns; goddesses were often compared to cows, and gods
to bulls.

10. Aryans
• Learned to use iron by 1,000 BC
• as the community settled down, Agriculture
gained prominence.
• In the course of time Aryans went on to became
farmers.
• They learned to farm rice cultivation by 600 BC.
• It’s because of farming activity a more ordered
and settled society evolved.

11. • Society - organized on caste system
• economic structure - division of labour of the caste.
• Aryans - became the priests, rulers, warriors, peasants and
merchants, the lower rank was left for the natives called as Shudra.
• The occupations were based on four major varnas, Brahmin,
Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra.
• The food of the Rigvedic Aryans consisted of parched grain and
cakes, milk and milk products, and various fruits and vegetables.

12. • Consumption of meat - common among, at least
among the upper classes.
•
• The Rigveda contains many references to animal
sacrifice and meat offered to the gods.
• The people in the Vedic period lived in straw and
wooden huts.
• They also introduced horse and chariot races.
• The social life cantered on Yagna meaning s a ritual of
sacrifice.

13. • Money was unknown, and bartering with
cattle and other valuables was the favoured
way of conducting trade and commerce.

14. • With a more settled and ordered society trade
and commerce started to flourish.
• Life in towns evolved again and writing was re-invented.
• By 600 BC a highly civilized society had emerged
in India with its economy based on rural mode of
production and its surplus being exported
through trade and commercial activities
•

15. Maurya Empire
• The Empire was founded in 322 BCE by
Chandragupta Maurya, who had overthrown
the Nanda Dynasty

16. • Under Chandragupta and his successors, internal
and external trade, agriculture and economic
activities, all thrived and expanded across India
thanks to the creation of a single and efficient
system of finance, administration, and security.
• After the Kalinga War, the Empire experienced
nearly half a century of peace and security under
Ashoka.

17. • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurya_Empire

18. • For the first time in South Asia, political unity and
military security allowed for a common economic
system and enhanced trade and commerce, with
increased agricultural productivity.
• Farmers were freed of tax and crop collection
burdens from regional kings, paying instead to a
nationally administered and strict-but-fair system
of taxation as advised by the principles in the
Arthashastra.

19. • Chandragupta Maurya established a single
currency across India, and a network of
regional governors and administrators and a
civil service provided justice and security for
merchants, farmers and traders.

20. • The Mauryan army wiped out many gangs of
bandits, regional private armies, and powerful
chieftains who sought to impose their own
supremacy in small areas.
• Maurya also sponsored many public works
and waterways to enhance productivity, while
internal trade in India expanded greatly due to
newfound political unity and internal peace.

21. Indo-Greek friendship treaty
• Ashoka's reign, an international network of trade
expanded.
• The Khyber Pass, on the modern boundary
of Pakistan and Afghanistan, became a strategically
important port of trade with the outside world.
• Greek states and Hellenic kingdoms in West Asia
became important trade partners of India.
• Trade also extended through the Malay peninsula into
Southeast Asia.
• India's exports included silk goods and textiles, spices
and exotic foods.

22. • New scientific knowledge and technology with
expanding trade with the Mauryan Empire.
• Ashoka also sponsored the construction of
thousands of roads, waterways, canals, hospitals,
rest-houses and other public works.
• The easing of many over-rigorous administrative
practices, including those regarding taxation and
crop collection, helped increase productivity and
economic activity across the Empire.

23. Mauryan Empure versus Roman
Empire
• In many ways, the economic situation in the
Mauryan Empire is analogous to the Roman
Empire of several centuries later.
• Both had extensive trade connections and both
had organizations similar to corporations.
• While Rome had organizational entities which
were largely used for public state-driven projects,
Mauryan India had numerous private commercial
entities.
• These existed purely for private commerce and
developed before the Mauryan Empire itself.